I do not want to start a discussion about eSport games in general and, briefly, there is no doubt that Racing is still a “small thing” in eSports nowadays... Ask CS, WC3 or WoW players about it and you will get answers like: “booooring”, “race....what?” or probably “Mario Kart rawks!!!”

Anyway... lately, we added our new Trackmania player 'gaLLo', a super-friendly and super-fast guy and I’m glad to have him in our line-up. We are going to have a lot fun on and off-track!

Racing is sooo multivalent as there are games like Live for Speed, RACE07, rFactor or iRacing and on the other hand Need for Speed, Trackmania or even Mario Kart. But no different computer games, like the simulations, are connecting reallife and “eSports” that much! You can find famous active reallife racers (actually former Fomula One) playing these games competitively or even as training for their real races.

It is really admirable!!!

Arcade racing, though, is good fun! Trackmania is the best example and turned into an upcoming eSport title in the last years. But also all other racing games have some really good tournaments and competition. Even though they are not involved in eSport that much... but.. i mean, you were able to win like more than a handful cars in the last three years and...

only a few in the eSports community even noticed… which, in my opinion, is a pity!

Nevertheless.. I’m looking forward to up-and-coming weeks. I won’t reveal much, but there are big things coming up and… I hope more people will notice and realize that even racing games (no matter which one) are famous, competitive and not only a “small thing”.

Stay tuned and feel free to comment what you do think about "Racing Games"!

Winning - Losing - Laughing - Crying... just everything!!!
All in all: It was still a great weekend...

I never really planned to go to Cebit'09, but after watching the matches over the week I somehow wished to go there though. Friday night then, after SK's win over mTw and an unbelievable loss versus mibr, b0nd told me that he and Jay are going to have some fun in Hannover (because the Intel Racing Tour was there as well).
It was almost 1am and i just woke up, as my sleeping schedule is fu**ed up anyway... so... I finally decided to catch
the next train to Hannover 5o'clock in the moring after playing some CS with b0nd, lidy and immo. (and bibi ofc!)

Well, yeah..., after a really boring train ride of five hours through half of Germany, I finally entered the Cebit exhibition.
Exactly two years ago we joined SK Gaming on the same fairground - some special place actually :' )
And these years in SK were quite amazing, especially for me, and I am really looking forward to the future!

When I entered the Hall 22 on Saturday, it was great to see all the eSports guys again. No matter if it's Tim, Maly, walle, Robban, or Carmac... and my Racing Mates of course!!! I also met some people for the first time, like reis and Zechs.
But I was still to shy to talk to the other SK Sweden players... haha, though I could fill up the list with many other names, especially the Racing guys I met, I'd say all of them are great guys and it's always worth to meet them at any time.

We, the Racing Team (Jay, b0nd and I), decided to focus a bit on that Racing Tour thingy, because they have thrown out a brand new CPU to the fastest guy at the end of the day. I wasn't really prepared at all, because it was just some unknown random special-event (at least to us) and not an offical racing tournament. Due to the fact that it was played with Live for Speed, you were still able to find many known racers at the wheel.

The last time I started LFS, though, was already over 6 months ago, as i just switched to "GTR Evolution" in summer 2008. At the end of the day, in my ~fifth attempt, I still managed to get the best time overall - b0nd and Jay sucked ofc... ;b - But I think my Live for Speed skills aren't really lost and I showed that I am still quite fast.

Whatever! Because I was beaten in the very last attempt anyway... by some upcoming known Live for Speed talent. Good job and respect to him!!! Very well done, even though it was really close!
Yeah, sh*t happens... after losing an 1000€-CPU in the last seconds I was finally able to enjoy some eSport action.
I love watching SK matches and supporting them, don't mind which game!

And it was great to meet walle and Robban again, after talking to them in Paris where I was quite shy ^_^
Haha... anyway, due to all that trashtalk in IRC it was really cool to see and support them in Hannover!!!

Even though... it was sad to sit directly behind them while they were losing (versus MYM especially...) :' (
I think wallemo joined the club and everybody was quite disappointed, including me.
Every passionated and professional gamer wants to win!!!!! (besides having fun, of course)
Next time we will hang out and go partying after _winning_!, aight guys!? ; ) Cheer up and keep fighting!!
But at this point it was the best to end the day...

On the next day, though, we had some fun at the Racing Tour again!
We also copied that pic infront of alice's poster of our ladies team. :-)
Sorry for stealing the idea, HeHe.., but we had to get in a better mood and it was at least some fun.
Last action before I left the exhibiton was the WOW Grand Final.
Crazy stuff... especially the fourth match of that second best-of-five! Sadly with the wrong end again...
I just recorded a POV of SK.hyoga during that epic match, you can find it on the startpage!

All in all: It was a great eSport weekend once again for me.
Not really successful, but it showed me that Gaming is exactly the right thing for me!
Cheer up and keep fighting mates!

For some of you it might be just boring and annoying stuff, but many people are already interested in and loving it! SK Racing’s “One Lap with…” Video-Guide just had one Episode so far, but I can tell ya that we are going to release the second part of it within this blog.

It features the upcoming German National Virtual Racing Touring Car Championship Racetrack
“Circuit Ricardo Tormo” which is better known as Valencia Grand Prix.
The Game that is used is “GTR Evolution” with “STCC – The Game” Addon.

My humble self, Danny 'HuskY' Engels, will take you for a lap around the circuit in SK Gaming’s BMW
E90 320si. This time you can even see the real driver in action, just check it out and take a look!

Why are we doing this? It’s quite easy to explain!
First of all, SK Racing wants to show to the entire eSports Community, (especially SK’s
which is the best … for sure ;-) ) what we are actually doing or what “Virtual Racing” is all about.
And we also know that these games are quite hard and not easy to master, but exactly therefore
we will give you a closer look on “How the “Racing-Aliens” are doing it!

The upcoming “One Lap with…” will feature Live for Speed – Blackwood GP / FZ50 GTR.
And for those of you who are really interested in it, I can tell you that we even have and will upload all the “One Lap with…” Videos on SK-Gaming.com in High Quality!

But if you are just bored by a “Hotlap”, even though you are not really averse to Racing, then I want to remind you about SK Gaming’s Racing Video Series.

SK released some “Sim-Racing” Videos every Friday and I have to announce, that there will be only two more for the first season! Both upcoming Videos will be by Steven “SK|kraniwani” Kranhold. We may even get a special surprise video at the end of series one as well!

- #low-racing already completed their penalty, which put them back in 2nd position!
They still have the chance to win, because they are only 6 seconds behind the leader!

15:20CET

DRIVE THROUGH PENALTY for #low-racing
because of speeding in the pitlane during their last pitstop.
Eventhough #low-racing gained 7 seconds due to a splash and dash pitstop to Mercury,
the DT Penalty will give Mercury Racing the lead again and probably the victory with 40 minutes to go!

SK Gaming is just pitting for the last time right now and Marco 'Jay' Schade will finish the race for SK.
If nothing unforeseen will happen in the last minutes, Mercury Racing will win the 24hours race infront of #low-racing and my3id. SK Gaming will finish their unlucky race with a dreadful disconnect on 4th position.

- My3id Gaming already did their Drive-Through Penalty
- #low-racing pitted unscheduled after they had a flat front tyre
- Mercury-Racing is only 1 seconds behind the leader #low

Update: Mercury Racing took over the lead!It is still a tight and tough fight for 1st and 3rd position after 22 hours!

13:00CET

Drive-Through Penalty for my3idSebastian 'ClioRacer' Seybold is just starting his personal last stint for this race,
after he had a tough challenge in the early morning.

Not much changed in the Top5 Ranking of MoE's 24hours of Aston GP Race so far,
but my3id Gaming recieved a Drive-Through Penalty. They have to complete their Penalty
within the current hour. It will probably cost them 15-20 seconds and that will help SK Gaming to come up to the aspiered 3rd position again.

Update:#low-racing has a puncture, in a commanding position!
They are rescuring their GTR into the pits right at the moment.
The battle for Place 1 between #low and Mercury Racing is going to be exciting in the last hours!

"The sun is shining bright (too bright tbh ;-) ) which means we have passed the night hours
and are now in the last part of this hard race. Well, what happened so far?

We did very well battling for Pos.1 until several teams had to suffer under the disconnect flood in the night. Unfortunately we have been one of these teams, and furthermore we have had two crashes and seeing that our great vision of the victory ended up in a glimmer of hope.

Everything we wanted to avoid on our way to success seemed to happen.
Actually 3rd place is the more realistic target for this race now.
Put your fingers crossed!"

10:00CET

400 laps and 18 hours done!
#low-racing is entering the last quarter in 1st Place

Not much happened to all the Top Teams in front.
The night mixed up alot though and SK Gaming is still fighting with my3id for 3rd position.

Update: Mercury did a minor mistake few moments ago and F1RST Racing went out of fuel!
F1RST had to rejoin the Server, which means that they will get a 1 lap penalty for this.
They are still on 5th position more than 2 laps behind SK Gaming though!

Meanwhile, Mercury did a major mistake and even #low-racing had some small problems in their strategy, which helps SK Gaming a bit and brings new hope.

#low is about to stop soon, but they will stay in first position right infront of Mercury.8 hours to go - everything can happen!

07:00CET

Bye bye Place 1?Sebastian 'ClioRacer' Seybold did a great pace in the beginning of his 3 hours stint by regaining some lost time. SK were already back one and ahalf minutes behind the leaders after 14 hours of racing.
But unfortunately Sebastian Seybold did a small mistake and went straight into the wall.
That crash including damage repair in pit costed SK Gaming more than 1 1/2 minutes again.

With a deficit of exactly 3 minutes to #low-racing and Mercury Racing, who are still fighting within few seconds, it almost seems to be impossible to get back into the fight for 1st place eventhough there are 9 hours remaining.

Half-time - 12hours to go!
After Hendrik 'b0nd' von Eye timed out very unlucky, he did a great job by facing the night more than 3 hours non-stop! It is planned, that Sebastian 'ClioRacer' Seybold will do almost the same by driving the upcoming 3 hours. He will probably see the first sunlights for SK in the morning today.

Anyway - SK Gaming has fallen back after a dreadful disconnect, but they are regaining lost time.
#low-racing and Mercury Racing are in some distance battles, fighting for place one.
The lead is always changing because of their different strategies. Mercury is in first place by more than 30 seconds with equal amount of pitstops though.SK Gaming has to catch up 2 Minutes to Mercury - Hard work! Not Impossible & 12 hours remaining!

01:10CET

SK Racing lagged out!
DISCONNECT! - and it probably screwed up SK Gaming 's entire race. SK is not disqualified, but due to the fact that Hendrik 'b0nd' von Eye timed out, they were losing nearly one lap
(bit more than 2 minutes) and it mixed up their complete tactics.SK Gaming is still in 3rd position for now, but it will be hard work to get closer to the leaders again...

Update: Not only SK Gaming timed out, also F1RST Racing, spdo Racing, Team Inferno and my3id. All the teams fighting for 3rd - 7th position had bad luck!

Christoph 'DreaF' Hörenbaum will enter the night for SK in a few moments...Marcel 'SandMan' Krause did a great job by gaining another position (2nd place now)
and keeping a good pace right behind Mercury Racing.
Still 17hours remaining, plenty of time to get the 1st place in this race!

Update: Drive-Through Penalty for #low-racing for causing an avoidable crash. That means that the fight for place 1 turned into a duel between SK Gaming and Mercury Racing for the moment...

22hours remaining
First two stints are over as scheduled. Marco 'Jay' Schade did a great performance! Hendrik 'b0nd' von Eye took over the FZ50 GTR at SK's 2nd pitstop. The race is getting a bit calmer now and everyone is trying to find their rythmn.
Mercury is leading the 24h of Aston GP endurance-race by 5 seconds infront of #low-racing.

SK Gaming is still in 3rd position, always in nearby distance to the leaders.

16:30CET

THE RACE IS LIVE!Marco 'Jay' Schade is starting for SK Gaming and at the moment he is on the 3rd position after the first laps. #low-racing is leading the race with Mercury Racing in their Mirrors.SK Gaming is fighting with F1RST Racing and my3id for 3rd position.
It's scheduled that Marco 'Jay' Schade will stay in the car until ~18:15 CET !

SK|Jay just said before the race, that the Top 7 can go almost the same pace and the keys to win this race are going to be constancy, endurance, avoiding crashing and no bad luck in form of disconnects.
It will be a long race though....

I can proudly announce to you that the SK Racing Team is going to release some eSport Racing Videos weekly to you. We will start with some “Live for Speed” action, due to the fact that SK Racing was born in that Simulation. Particularly SK Driver and former ESL Pro Series Finalist Steven “SK|kraniwani” Kranhold mixed a lot of great clips into several videos.

Every Friday morning, you will be able to find a new Clip on SK Gaming’s frontpage.
I hope you will enjoy the racing action, even though most of you are probably not really interested in it at all. I know that Motorsports is not a big deal in eSports, but we would like to show all of you how Sim-Racing actually looks like. (Yes, you are right, it is NOT Need for Speed!) - Check it out!

I hope we can gain some interest and respect by all the other Gamers out there!

Live for Speed Main Contest - SK|b0nd - 2nd place
Live for Speed Main Contest - SK|Clio - 4th place
Live for Speed Main Contest - SK|SandMan - 5th place
Counter-Strike 1.6 - SK Gaming feat. "ESDS" - 5th place

It was a lot of fun and a quite successful event for us.
I thank you for reading my blog and supporting us!!!!!
I'll update the blog with new photos, videos and a last summary within the upcoming week!
(//UPDATE: Gallery is updated with new "David Portnicki-Pics"!)
You are welcome, cheerio and ciao
Danny "HuskY`" Engels

Saturday - 22:00:
gamer-FM had some problems to stream the Live for Speed race into the Internet, but it was streamed for local visitors and a VoD will be available for you guys, after the weekende on gamer-FM.
Anyway, the first race is over and SK|b0nd finished it in first place with a victory and 2nd place (18 pts).
SK|Jay just follows him in 2nd place (16 pts) and HFD|t3ddy (10 pts) got third overall.
The next two races will be in an hour and i'll give you the complete overall standing after these races.
// UPDATE: Trackmania 1on1 - 1/2 Final - SK|HuskY [00:02] hng>>Shadox

Saturday - 15:30:
Live for Speed Main Contest System
3x2 15minutes races:
-South City Long / GTR
-Blackwood GP / XRG
-Aston Grand Prix / F08
Gamer-FM will stream the first two races LIVE at 20:00 on South City Long! Check www.gamer-fm.de !
Project Gotham Racing and Need for Speed are finally starting tonight!

Saturday - 12:30:
Counter-Strike 1.6 5on5 Winnerbraket Semi Final:
// UPDATE: SK Gaming feat. "ESDS" [04:16] c00lt e.Sports (de_train)
Next Match will be Loserbracket Semi Final on de_cbble this evening!
Live for Speed is going to start at 3o'clock (~delayed again) and
we are still waiting for Project Gotham Racing and Need for Speed schedule

Saturday - 10:30:
Good Morning SK Community - I got some time to summerize the first day after a short and cold night: It was a pretty good start for us in the Counter-Strike tournament. We are already in the Winnerbraket Semifinal vs. c00lt eSports on de_train later today, after two pretty easy dominating wins yesterday.
But first of all, we are all waiting for the start of the racing tournaments. Trackmania is the only tourney which is already seeded; sad is, that i'll directly face SK|Jay in the first round there. However, Trackmania is just for fun and the Live for Speed racers will have their first drivers briefing very soon.
We are just relaxing a bit right now and I'll update you after the first Trackmania matches,
even though i guess, that we will be quite busy today....

Saturday - 01:00:
The racing tournaments are already delayed and will probaly start tomorrow due to some technical problems. Anyway, we won our first Counter-Strike 5on5 match and are going to play vs. [GATA] in about an hour.
// UPDATE: WB 1/4 Final - SK Gaming feat. "ESDS" [16:00] [GATA] (de_nuke)

Friday - 22:00:
Counter-Strike 1.6 5on5 is the first tournament which will start in a few minutes. The matches are already seeded and we have to play versus OLDSTARS which seems to be a mix-team.
// UPDATE: WB 1/8 Final - SK Gaming feat. "ESDS" [16:09] OLDSTARS (de_dust2)

Friday - 21:00:
We are just setting up our PC's. The most tournaments are going to start around midnight. I'll update you guys later then! It's nice to see all the racing guys again and we are really looking forward to the entire LAN! I think I can promise that it will be a quite successful event for SK!

The World Cyber Games is pretending to be the Olympic Games of e-Sports. I visited the Grand Final in Cologne this year and and can honestly understand that it is a dream of every gamer to win the World Cyber Games at least once! I would be even proud just to compete there once in my lifetime, but that has not been possible until now. I say, until now!

After more then five years seeing Need for Speed and Project Gotham Racing at World Cyber Games, I definitely want to say that this is enough for me now. Why do they need to pick two arcade racing games at the biggest eSport event in world? An event that should representate the entire "e-Sport thing" to the outstanding world. Do you want to see Counter-Strike 1.6 and Source in World Cyber Games next year? No!!! And I think the same for the racing games, even though I know that NFS and PGR are not the same games at all.

However it is actually the same thing for me: cars driving 1on1 into the walls and the fastest wallrider or crasher will be the winner! Let's mix it and bring a racing simulation game into the WCG and you will see that it is a totally other thrilling thing!

To be honest, I like NFS in a way too, and I would definitely miss it, if there won't be arcade games in WCG future. But the thing is, that i do not want to see them twice in such a big tourney. There is the possibility to get one simulation instead and it would even fit perfectly due to the fact that they will choose two games for each genre each year.

Anyway, now it is your turn - you can change the esport world and help my dreams come true!

Vote here now, please!
http://www.wcg.com/6th/poll/poll_PTT.asp

All I am asking you for is to choose "GTR Evolution" as one of the racing games, and it is your choice which arcade game you want to see next year in Chengdu!

NASCAR DRIVER Carl Edwards decided it would be a clever idea to try a trick that he learned from racing cars on his computer.

Edwards noticed that in computer games you could bounce your car off the side of the race track to get around a corner a lot easier. Figuring that the games developers knew a bit about physics, Edwards attempted to defeat rival and two-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson by bouncing his car off a concrete wall in the same way he would in the game.

He told Kotaku that he planned on hitting the wall, but didn't plan on the wall slowing him down quite as much as it did. "In video games, you can just run into the wall and run it wide open. That's what I did, but it didn't quite work out the same as the video game," he said.

Unfortunately he just crashed!
Source: http://www.theinquirer.net/

That is the reason why we are playing Sim racing games. Get real and don't call Need for Speed or PGR a racing game or even a simulation !!!....

If you only know racing games like Need for Speed, then you definitely missed something....
Check this video made by our Racing Team Member SK|kraniwani:

Hey guys o/
Maybe you all read the news that i was in Kiel at the Intel Racing Tour. Well, there isn't a secound Intel Racing Tour Season yet, but there was a kind of special event stopp, where the fastest driver can win a Notebook. I wanted to win that damn nice thing, too and i did a kind of LIVE Coverage here in my blog news.
Today i updated it with a more detailed summery of this nice weekend and i hope you enjoy reading it. I will upload many pics in a few days, too. You will find them @ SK Gallery
LIVE Coverage:
Qualifying times for the Final Race:
1. Danny Engels - 4:06.34
2. Hartmut Slosarek - 4.16.44
3. Sebastian Timmermann - 4:16.86
Final Race:
Danny Engels vs Hartmut Slosarek - [1:0] *WIN*
________________________________________________
WoW, that's the first thing i would say if someone asked me about this weekend. No! not World of Warcraft ... just an awesome weekend ... maybe a World of Wonders.
I don't wanna write too much and deter you, but i think it's hard to do a _short_ summery of the last 48 hours. I hope it isn't too boring for you and maybe you can get some interessting and nice impressions of an "Event Weekend" with SK|HuskY.
h3lly told me friday evening something about a special Intel Racing Tour Event Stopp in Kiel at the 'Kieler Woche'. At this Specialstopp the two fastest drivers have the chance to win a Futjisu Siemens Amilo Notebook each day. I knew that it was my chance to win a prize of approx 1000 Euro without any problems, because there wasn't a really skilled driver in Kiel.
But Kiel is around 800 kilometers away from my home town ... actually i have to go by train for 9 hours and this sucks ...
Well, everybody knows, at least after this freaky 24 hours World Record, that I'm just a little bit crazy! So, I asked SK if it is possible to get support for this Special Intel Racing Tour Stopp. meru and killabee organized many things, like a nice hotel, at friday evening - big thanks mates! Everything was ohkey, but i slept only 4 hours, because we played and won a Counter-Strike Leaguematch this night and my mission 'Kieler Woche' started at 6 am. I hadn't a big problem to handle that, but after 15 minutes of chillin' in the train, the train driver told us that a stupid guy commited suicide with running in front of a train. Kids, commiting suicide isn't the right way to solve your problems ... it just creates new problems - like mine. The train had to stop in Wittlich, because the police closed the road to the next trainstation. Huh, i was a little bit pissed off..
The 'Deutsche Bahn' told me that there will be a bus, which drive us to the next trainstation. Well ... normaly i haven't a problem with driving bus insteed of train, but there wasn't a bus ... After approx one and a half hour of waiting and sitting in the rain a bus arrived. All in all i was happy about the fact that i can go on, and with "only" 2 hours delay, my new train reached the trainstation of Koblenz. I planed to be in Kiel at 2:32 pm because the sign up for the 'qualifying races' ended at 5 pm ... Yo and now i added 2 hours ... i wasn't really happy about this situation, especially as my 3rd train (normaly the 2nd) also had a delay of 10 minutes. Hmm i tried not to think about this fucking day and slept some hours in the train from Koblenz to Hamburg ...
But close in front of Hamburg (just 1 hour of Kiel away) our train stopped again. "The police is searching some playing kids on the rails and nobody is allowed to drive to Hamburg at the moment" I became crazy and called cyber|Biernot and many other people to get some information - specially about the Intel Racing Tour ... I had to add 40 minutes delay again ... I needed someone who drive me to Kiel. Because i missed my train from Hamburg to Kiel with 50 minutes delay of the InterCity train, too. The great Biernot rented a car and picked me up in Hamburg to drive fullspeed over the highway ... but we were too late ... big thanks to Biernot for acting as taxi driver. It was just awesome and i hope i can make you a nice suprise in two weeks at holidays in Denmark ;-) We will see !
Well i was too late ... hmm, crap thing in my opinion. My last chance was to win a notebook on sunday evening, but i have to go to school on monday morning. I searched a new train over night to Trier and had the luck to find a good one. Yo, so i created a new "plan" and was satisfied for the moment. I had also the chance to get some promotion for SK and intel on saturday and to get a little bit fame at the Kieler Woche. I did an Interview on the nice BMW stage at the BMW 'Bootshafen' and talked a little bit during the Intel Racing Tour Saturday Final Race. It was really funny and I met some interessting guys, like Sebastian and Bernhard, but also all the Intel Racing Tour guys again. In the evening i had the first chance to show my skill in the BMW Cockpits. Many guys there said that no one can drive faster then 4:16.x but i drove already a 4:08.99 in my first race. I love it to drive in these cockpits and to push the car hard through every corner with this newby Intel Racing Tour Setup.
I finished the day with doing some party at the 'Kieler Woche' and check in in my hotel.
At the next morning i knew i have to make it - to win this fuckin' damn thing. And i practiced the hole day with nice, fair and friendly opponents. It was quite cool! In the end i drove a 4:06.34 and was over 10 secounds faster then the 2nd placed Hartmut Slosarek. At 5pm, it was sure that i have to drive versus Hartmut in the final race on the stage in front of many peoples and cameras.
To drive 5 rounds on Kyoto National and cross the finish line as first ... that was the onliest thing i had to do to win a new notebook.
I wasn't nervous on the stage. Maybe it was an advantage to drive there. Anyway, i knew that I only can beat me myself, because i was 3 secounds per lap faster then Hartmut in the qualifying races. After an awesome performance on the stage i crossed the finish line 15 secounds in front of Hartmut and won.
1st place at the Intel Racing Tour Specialstopp in Kiel at the Kieler Woche.
I was happy about the hole situation ... to win an interessting tournament for SK again and to win a notebook. Maybe i will use, or maybe i will sell this thing .. I can't say it right now, but i think i will sell it ...
After the final race i walked a little bit through the 'Kieler Woche' and it's very interessting how many peoples talk to you about the Intel Racing Tour. The most people came to me and asked me something like "And you won the real BMW M6 ? wow ... awsome - GRATZ" and they wanted to know something about the Intel Racing Tour and Live for Speed. Some guys asked also for an autograph :p There was a little feeling of being famous ^^ and this as a Live for Speed driver!
In the evening i drove back home to Trier with train, but everything was good. I left Kiel at 9 pm and I arrived at Trier at 7:30 am, so that I had no problems to go to school 20 minutes later. I hope this blog wasn't too boring for you and especially the Saturday was a really unlucky day for me, but in the end i won that thing! (:
cheers \o/

Yo, 10 drivers, 2 Races, 1 Title - "German Live for Speed ESL Pro Series Champion". This weekend the ESL Pro Series Season X Finals was taken place in Cologne at the Gürzenich. It was our 2nd big event as SK Racing Drivers and after the double victory at the Intel Racing Tour Finals, just 2 months ago, we were favorites for this event, too. My personal favorite was my teammate, the four times german EPS Champion, Nils Naujoks. I finished the regular season only as 7th, but i had many up and downs there. So I said I'll try my best and my personal aim for the Finals was at least Place 5.
The special thing at every Live for Speed Final is, that the admins choose the combo (track/car) just one or two hours before the race starts. So you have to learn the track and car really fast and try to find a good setup, too. Because of this fact everything was possible and i knew i can get into the Top 3 when they choose one of my favorite track or car.
At Saturday morning the show begun. I was really tired, because we had a lot fun this night with the other Live for Speed guys at the camping place and i slept around two hours on a chair in the cold forest of Cologne. The admin told us, that we'll drive the BMW Sauber F1 on the british Westhill International racetrack. Well, i was really happy about the F1, but i knew that Westhill is a hard and close highspeed track. It's really difficult to handle your car without mistakes there, specially in slipstream (dirty air and aeroloss) of the other cars or in awesome highspeed fights with your opponents. After one and a half hour of training i was really confident. In the One-Lap-Qualifying we showed, that SK wanna win this event too, specially Nils. He took the pole right in front of me and we defended our positions in the hole 1st race. For the 2nd Race, on the same combo, the hole grid was turned around at the start, it's in a way like WTCC. So I started at 7th position, but overtook already 3 cars in the first corner. Don't know how i made this, but it was really unbelievable and awesome, specially because Nils, right behind me, followed me and did the same thing. In a really hard battle with the n!faculty guys, some laps later, i had a lot of fun, but i overtook them with a faster pitstop or maybe the better strategy. At the end i finished the 2nd race on place two again and i was really happy about the Ranking after the first two races. It was clear that we wanted to defend our double lead at sunday morning. But I knew that Nils is normaly the better driver and i could not beat him if he'll make no mistakes. My aim for sunday was to defend my 2nd place. The admin choose the japanese track Kyoto National reverse with the GTR class. Kyoto National reverse is one of my favorite track and i love it to drive there. I was able to get the 3rd position in qualifying and Nils was one place in front of me. But after turn one it was SK, who was leading again on place one and two. In the long and hard race I was a little bit unconcentrated and lost one position in the last lap. But i was really satisfied with this 3rd place in Race Number three. In the last race it was the same problem again. I did not found a good pace and did a lot of mistakes. I destroyed the car a little bit and it was really crap to drive after stupid touches with other cars or the wall. Thereto i had some trouble with my pedals, too. They failed for about 15 seconds and i lost important positions. It was really crazy, and i was pissed off. I had to fight for my 2nd place again. It was close but, in the end, i made it. All in all it was an awesome event again and after the double victory at the Intel Racing Tour Finals a few months ago, we did the same amazing thing at the ESL Pro Series Finals this weekend. But this time it was Nils, who won the title. But i'm really satisfied and happy with my 2nd place after this hard Season with many up and downs. It was a funny and cool weekend with all the nice LFS guys, but also with my SK.Fifa mates. I said it already in our SK board - Everything was possible ... my personal aim was at least place 5.
In the end it was a double victory for SK Racing again. The new EPS will start in around 2 month and I'll try do my best for the next Season!
Cheers
Danny o/